Search results for "ARCHAIC LATIN"
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Continuity and discontinuity in the semantics of the Latin preposition per: a cognitive hypothesis
2009
We intend to analyse the semantic network of the preposition ‘per’ (“through”, “across” etc.) in Early Latin and the role of its conceptual structure in the spread from basic/spatial to abstract meanings. Although prepositions in ancient languages have raised a great deal of attention, there is little regarding Latin, and an in-depth semantic analysis of Latin prepositions is still lacking. A cognitive-based investigation of Plautus’ comedies (254-184 BCE) shows that, unlike other Indo-European languages, the spatial value rests on a schema representing ‘motion along a path’ not necessarily involving a bounded Landmark. The spatial meanings are predominant in Archaic Latin; the only abstrac…
Grammaticalization of actional values in Archaic Latin
2008
This paper aims at showing how prefixation does not modify systematically the actional value of Latin verbs. Scholars of historical grammars of Indoeuropean languages and traditional studies about prefixation agree with the idea that in Latin, and in all Indoeuropean languages, preverbation results on actional value of predicates: Delbruck 1897 argued that prefixes perfectivize verbal meaning since they indicate its accomplishment; Meillet and Vendryes 1924 claimed that the prefixe focuses a specific point of the process described by the non prefixed verb; van der Heide 1934 believed that Latin preverbs express the accomplishment of the process denotated by the non prefixed verbs. More rece…